“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
I hated people who would talk incessantly about their Apple products. I cringed every time I heard, “Apples don’t get viruses like your Windows machine does.” OR “Once you go Mac, you never go back.” I would always respond the same way, “Go f**k yourself!”
That’s until I actually purchased a Mac.
I remember when my boss brought it in, fresh from being shipped from China. You see, I haggled with him to get it and I had the best reason in the world to buy it too: “More and more of our clients are switching to Apple, so we better learn them so we know how to work on one.” I actually bargained my raise to get a brand-new MacBook Pro by getting the Mac instead of the $3,000 a year that I’d normally have received. I reasoned with my boss that I would get a computer and he gets the tax write-off. See, it’s a win-win!
Unboxing an Apple product is like watching porn; you slowly undress this gorgeous computer and strip away, layer by layer, the exquisite manuals and stickers, etc. Finally, you get the machine out, fire it up, and watch it say hello to you in twenty billion languages. It’s quite spectacular to witness. After that, you add the wi-fi password, your name, password, and then the fun begins. The creativity…the magic. There was only one issue…
I never used a Mac before.
I didn’t know how to do ANYTHING on my Mac. Nothing. Zilch.
My boss showed me a quick tutorial on how to get around and left me to my own devices. He directed me to the Apple store online and told me to check out the videos that helped new users get around the computer. I got the hang of it in about a weekend.
Five years later, I’m glad I made the switch. Like Tony Hawk.
Tonight, as I was visiting with my family, a special news bulletin came over the TV. I immediately said, “This can’t be good.” I was expecting something terrible like a political figure was assassinated or something equally as shocking. As I readied myself to hear the news, it came: Steve Jobs was dead.
So what, you may ask? He was just another rich mucky-muck who was in the public spotlight and now he kicked it. Big friggin’ deal, right? You’re damn right, it IS a big friggin’ deal.
Without Steve Jobs vision for Apple, this post that you’re now reading wouldn’t exist. Without Steve Jobs, the movie Finding Nemo wouldn’t have been made. Without Steve Jobs, the music that has been my entire life would never have been created. So yes, it’s a HUGE f**king deal!
Wil Wheaton said what I think many people felt about Steve Jobs today on his Google+ page:
I don’t agree with everything Apple does, but I feel like the world lost an important person today, and I feel like I lost a distant relative who I never got to meet, but knew everything about because for one reason or another his influence was everywhere I looked.
In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford University. In his closing remarks, he told the graduating class to “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Those words really resonated with me.
Thank you Steve for your tenacity and genius. The world lost a visionary and you will be missed.
